February 17, 2007	Saturday	Muharram 28, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 16: The Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday dismissed an appeal made by the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), thereby upholding the decision of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) over reduction in bandwidth tariffs.

On Oct 6 the PTA had reduced the tariffs of different slots of bandwidth. However, the decision was challenged by the PTCL in the High Court.

“We believe that the reduction in bandwidth tariff will help in the proliferation of broadband connections among household consumers and the IT-enabled services in the country,” a senior PTA official told Dawn.

The PTA had announced that the tariffs would be reduced after considering the arguments of all stakeholders according to which these should be in line with those of countries where effective competition exists. Bandwidth cost was a critical factor determining investments in broadband and IT-enabled services, he added.

The industry had been approaching the PTA to regulate the bandwidth tariffs, emphasising that the tariffs charged by the PTCL were abnormally high, taking away their competitive advantage vis-à-vis the international market.

Some investors were also of the view that the tariff structure discouraged them from investing in Pakistan. All this affected the growth of IT-enabled services in the country.The PTCL has a market monopoly over telecommunications infrastructure. Of late it has been engaged in anti-competitive practices, according to a PTA statement. The PTA has closely been monitoring PTCL’s activities and has warned the company many times.

Senior advocate Khalid Anwar represented the PTCL, whereas senior advocates Raja Mehmood Akhtar and Raja Nowsherwan Akhtar represented the PTA. Justice Abdul Shakoor Paracha, after hearing the arguments of the two sides, announced the dismissal of PTCL’s appeal against the PTA decision.